The First Look

Traditionally the groom first lays his eyes on the bride in her wedding dress as she walks up the isle to be married. I do love that. At each wedding I attend, I love the look of happy excitement, awe and emotion on the groom’s face as he sees his beautiful bride and within minutes their ceremony takes place. I love that you can hear sighs and gasps from the wedding guests as the bride emerges and they all see her looking beautiful and beaming with happiness.

But this is not the only way. I am now seeing increasing interest from couples to have a “first look”, where the couple see each other for the first time ahead of the ceremony, in private (photographer present of course!). Having witnessed it first hand, and having been with couples in the moments before their first look, I can certainly say that this is a really magical moment, with just as much thrill and emotion as the traditional way.

When researching first looks, my favourite one I came across was that of Ellen Degeneres & Portia de Rossi as they married at their home in California. Its a beautiful moment (at around 1min 25secs), and such a beautiful wedding to boot! I really love this wedding video.